Do you plan to invest in
a gold IRA in 2022?

Or maybe you’ve decided to rollover your 403b or 401k into a gold IRA? Choosing
the right precious metals IRA company to work with is the next step to take. Keep reading to learn about our favorite gold IRA companies that we’ve reviewed this year.

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Introduction to the Top 10 Gold IRA Companies

Do you plan to invest in gold or silver in 2022? Perhaps you are also considering platinum and palladium, as well. You may even be considering adding cryptocurrency to your overall portfolio of alternative assets.

You are most likely here because you want to invest in precious metals in your IRA. Be advised that there are indeed two purchase options to choose from when investing in gold or silver with the following precious metals IRA companies:

1. A gold IRA rollover: This would involve rolling over funds from your existing retirement account, such as a traditional or Roth IRA, a 401k, 403b, etc.; and investing into a self-directed IRA account that allows you to invest in alternative assets such as precious metals and cryptocurrency). Your metals will be stored in a secured vault (segregated or non-segregated) with one of the company’s depositories.

2. A non-IRA cash purchase: This is the much quicker, yet riskier approach. You will purchase the metals and they will be delivered straight to your home. ALL the best companies (all of the top 10, in fact) do offer free shipping. We advise that you store these metals in a secure vault OUTSIDE of your current residence. My personal advice would be to go to the bank or the post office. This is why if you are of age and do have a retirement account, you really should rollover the funds to a gold IRA account instead of going through this hassle.

Choosing the right precious metals IRA company to work with is the next step to take. From my own personal experience with investing in gold with these companies, and observing the buying patterns of my own customers as an affiliate who promotes these companies, there are really three extremely important factors to take into consideration before investing in a gold IRA account.

The 3 Things to Consider Before Choosing a Gold IRA Company:

Consideration 1: How much are you planning to invest? Your options may be very different depending on how much your are planning to invest. Before we proceed, you should ask yourself which of the 5 investment brackets your potential investment fits in:

  1. [Super-High Stakes] Investment Bracket 1: $200k+
  2. [High Stakes] Investment Bracket 2: $50k – $200k
  3. [Medium Stakes] Investment Bracket 3: $25k – $50k
  4. [Low Stakes] Investment Bracket 4: $10k-$25k
  5. [Micro Stakes] Investment Bracket 5: $2k – $10k

Consideration 2: The 7 Critical Factors that Make a Great Gold IRA Company. These are just the seven characteristics of a great gold IRA company that I’ve come up with my own investing experience (yes, I also invest in gold and crypto and also make purchases with some of these companies for my own portfolio), and also by observing the entire rollover and purchasing process throughout my career as an affiliate marketer for these gold IRA companies. These 7 Critical Factors are:

  1. Ratings
  2. Precious Metals Options
  3. Buyback Program
  4. Stockpiling Program
  5. Account Setup and Delivery
  6. Customer Support and Salesmanship
  7. Company Profile: Company Longevity, Team Staff, Transparency, Compliance

Consideration 3: Is your overall strategy to diversify through more than one type of alternative asset in your self-directed IRA? As in, are you planning on investing in both precious metals AND cryptocurrency? Please be advised that this review is not about cryptocurrency, but about gold and silver, and therefore the option to invest in cryptocurrency will not be factored into a company’s standing as a gold IRA company. In fact, the #1 company, Augusta, does not even have a cryptocurrency option at all. However, this is still something to take into consideration when you are making a portfolio of alternative assets in a self-directed IRA, as you do not have these options in a regular retirement account such as a 401k or 403b.

2022 List of Best Gold IRA Companies by Investment Bracket (Top 3 per Bracket):

[High Stakes] Investment Bracket 2: $50k - $200k

[Medium Stakes] Investment Bracket 3: $25k - $50k

[Low Stakes] Investment Bracket 4: $10k - $25k

[Micro Stakes] Investment Bracket 5: $2k - $10k

Consideration 1: Investment Brackets (Depending on the Size of Your Investment):

How much are you planning to invest? The best company for your needs will be COMPLETELY different based on that decision alone. Some companies offer better deals for certain investment amounts. These are the factors taken into consideration when determining which company offers you the best deal for which amount:

  1. The company’s minimum deposit requirement
  2. Total first-year IRA fees (or lack thereof because of the first-year fee waiver promotions some companies offer), including promotions such as free precious metals
  3. Yearly fees, second year and beyond, including ongoing promotions beyond the first-year such as free silver
  4. The actual markup above spot price
    • Markup Tier (Pricing Above Spot):
      1. Tier 1: Means lowest publicly known markup above bullion for all gold and silver purchases: 5%
      2. Tier 2: Means highly compeititve markup, may not be known, but from known public reviews are the lowest in the industry after Augusta (The Only Tier 1 Company)
      3. Tier 3: Not as competitive as tier 2, but still the next most competitive pricing in the gold IRA industry

Now that you have seen your choices for whatever amount you are willing to invest, we will not go over the two other considerations to make when choosing a gold IRA company:

  • Consideration 2: Does it follow the strict standards of the 7 Critical Factors of a Great Gold IRA Company?
  • Consideration 3: Can I also invest in cryptocurrency with the same IRA account or via a sister alternative IRA company? This does not factor in whether or not the company is a great gold IRA company, but it may be helpful to see if the company makes it convenient to invest in other alternative assets should you decide to take that option.

Keep reading to learn more:

Consideration 2: The 7 Critical Factors of a Great Gold IRA Company

1) Ratings, Reviews and Complaints

The primary online business rating sites are the Better Business Bureau (BBB), the Business Consumer Alliance (BCA), and TrustLilnk. There are other secondary websites that will only give you further details to what you will already find mostly in the primary rating sites. These secondary review sites include: Trustpilot, Yelp, Consumer Affairs, City Search, Facebook, Google, and SiteJabber.

The next critical factor to take into consideration when choosing a gold IRA company is the type of precious metals that they offer.

2) Precious Metals Types:

I actually want to be clear in this section that I am writing this as a believer in Christ, and an investor in precious metals, myself. This is just my personal testimony on why I invest in gold (primarily) myself. I have not invested in silver, yet, but that is a secondary goal to investing in gold. The priority to add platinum and palladium to my portfolio comes even after silver.

There are a total of 4 precious metals that can potentially be added to a precious metals IRA. Only two of those precious metals are considered the “primary” metals: Gold, and silver. This is not information that you will find elsewhere, but as a fellow believer, it should be enough to say that gold and silver are always delineated as items of high value from the beginning of the Bible to the end, gold obviously being the one of higher worth among the two. They will always be items of high value as we walk the earth.

The secondary precious metals are: platinum and palladium. ALL companies in the top 10 list offer the primary metals, at the very least. Most of the companies will offer the secondary metals in addition to the primary metals.

These are the IRS-requirements for the minimum purity levels of all 4 precious metals:

  1. Gold: 99.5%+
  2. Silver: 99.9%+
  3. Platinum:  99.95%+
  4. Palladium:99.95%+

Below, I will present my reasons for investing in these precious metals for your portolio.

IRA-Approved Gold and My Reasons to Buy Gold

Gold was of high net worth in the depiction of the River Pison in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:11-12), and it was said that the “gold of the land was good (v. 12b)”.  There are endless depictions of gold as an item of high worth throughout the Bible, but but more striking to me are the depictions of how much more important it is to love God than to love gold, or even silver (Psalms 19:10, Psalms 119:72, Psalm 119:172, Proverbs 8:19 are just a few).

Gold tried in the fire is what the angel of the church of Laodicea was told to buy to become rich (Revelations 3:18a). The entire book of Revelations is peppered with descriptions of gold, starting with the descriptions of the articles in God’s throne-room to even the clothes He wears. We read about the coming of New Jerusalem down from heaven in Revelations chapter 21 and the streets of gold we will be walking from that glorious day on forward.

I can confidently say that gold is the one tangible item with the highest intrinsic value in the earth. Remember that the gold bullion and coins you can purchase in your self-directed gold IRA will always have 99.5% purity or more. The next metal available for your precious metals IRA is silver.

IRA-Approved Silver and My Reasons to Buy Silver

Silver is just as prevalent throughout the Bible as a metal of high worth, frequently being spoken of in conjunction with gold (The slogan of this website, Psalms 119:72, being one of them!). It was also common to use it as an exchange for goods. Two items that had a price in terms of silver were: 1) fields and 2) fines paid to the father-in-law for various offenses a man can do to his wife.

Fields varied in price throughout the Bible, but they were always weighed in silver. Abraham bought a field from a man named Ephron the Hittite to bury his wife, Sarah, for 400 shekels of silver (Genesis 23).  King David once angered God greatly by counting the number of fighting men in Israel (this was only supposed to be done by God’s authority during wartime in accordance to the guidelines for gathering men for war in Deuteronomy 20). He had to repent of his sins by purchasing the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite for the full price of 50 shekels of silver and offer a sacrifice to the Lord (2 Samuel 24). Jeremiah also bought a field from his cousin for 17 shekels of silver (Jeremiah 32). Judas Iscariot received 30 shekels of silver for betraying Jesus. Later, when his guilty conscience ate him up, he cast the 30 pieces of silver to the ground in front of them and ran away to hang himself. They used the silver to buy a field, now called the “field of blood,” to bury him afterwards (Matthew 27).

Silver was also used as a payment to the father of a bride who was wronged by her husband. 100 shekels of silver was the price a man had to pay his father-in-law for wrongfully accusing his wife of unfaithfulness. 50 shekels of silver was the price to pay the father-in-law if a man caused a damsel to be committed to him by forcing himself upon her physically (Deuteronomy 22).

It is also important to note that silver is clearly the lesser form of currency than gold. This is true in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. It is highly implied from the following two examples that a glorious kingdom is one that contains a significantly higher amount of gold than silver. The first example would be that Solomon’s kingdom made gold so plentiful that silver barely had any worth and were “as stones” (1 Kings 10:27). The second example is the PURE LACK of the mention of silver in the description of New Jerusalem (Revelations 21). The only precious metal that it is made up of is gold. The last example of silver in the Bible is actually in the fall of the whore of Babylon, which, in the sequence of events, is way before we even enter the glorious New Jerusalem (Revelations 18). I would deduce that in New Jerusalem, silver would be worth just as little as it was in Solomon’s time or even more so. At least we can be sure from God’s Word that it will have significant value until the end of the tribulation.

The minimum purity level for IRA-approved silver as mandated by the IRS is 99.9%. Every precious metals IRA company has a silver IRA option. Gold and silver are the two metals that every precious metals IRA will offer.

These are the top 3 companies that ONLY offer the primary metals, gold and silver. They do not offer the secondary metals, platinum and palladium.

IRA-Approved Platinum – What You Need to Know:

To buy IRA approved platinum you have to know the rules and regulations regarding this investment. These rules come directly from the IRS and they must be followed at all times as an investor. They include:

  • Platinum Purity Minimum – all platinum investments must meet a minimum of 99.95% purity to qualify for an IRA. If you purchase platinum in the form of coins, rounds, or bars, it must maintain this level. If it doesn’t, it will not be deemed fit for a precious metals IRA.
  • Platinum Bars, Rounds, and Coins Accreditation – each of your potential investments must come from an IRS accredited organization. The main groups with IRS accreditation include: ISO 9000, LBMA, NYMEX, LPPM, TOCOM, certified national government mint, LME, COMEX, and NYSE/Liffe.
  • Platinum Proof Coins – proof coins made of platinum are definitely acceptable within a platinum IRA. To maintain acceptability they must remain in their original packaging, maintain perfect condition, and have a certificate of authenticity. If any of these criteria are missing, the platinum investment is no longer IRA eligible.
  • Small Platinum Bullion Bars – all small platinum bars must have a specific weight stamped on it. And more importantly, the bar itself must weigh exactly as much as the stamp says it should weigh. 50-ounce platinum bars are the only exclusion.
  • Non-Proof Platinum Bullion Coins – all non-proof platinum bullion coins must remain in brilliant uncirculated condition to achieve IRA approval. They will not be approved if the coins are damaged in any way either.

IRA-Approved Palladium – What You Need to Know:

But as I’ve mentioned, only certain Palladium metals meet the specific requirements provided by the IRS. They have strict rules and regulations in place that must be followed at all times. Their rules are as follows:

  • Palladium Minimum Purity Levels – to invest in palladium in a precious metals IRA, it must meet a minimum purity of 99.95%. If it doesn’t have this level of purity for bars, rounds, or coins, it doesn’t qualify as a precious metals IRA investment.
  • Accredited Palladium Coins, Rounds, and Bars – the only IRA approved Palladium investments must come from an organization that has IRS accreditation. The groups with IRS accreditation include: TOCOM, certified national government mint, NYSE/Liffe, ISO 9000, COMEX, LME, NYMEX, LPPM, and LBMA.
  • Palladium Proof Coins – these coins certainly have valuable content within them and they have achieved IRA approved palladium status. They also need a certificate of authenticity and they must be in perfect condition and their original packaging. They do not qualify for IRA approval without meeting these requirements.
  • Small Palladium Bullion Bars – smaller sized palladium bars have a specific weight stamped on the front of them. The bar must always have the correct weight according to the weight on the stamp. An exception to the rule is the 100-ounce palladium bar.
  • Non-Proof Palladium Bullion Coins – every one of the non-proof palladium bullion coins needs to maintain its brilliant uncirculated condition. Otherwise, it is not approved for a precious metals IRA. These coins cannot be damaged in any way, shape, or form.

 

These are the top 3 companies that offer ALL 4 precious metals, primary and secondary: gold, silver, platinum, and palladium:

These are the top 3 companies that offer ALL 4 precious metals, primary and secondary: gold, silver, platinum, and palladium:

3) Buyback Program

The quality of a company’s buyback program depends on the 1) the value given back in return, 2) the speed at which you will get the cash back into your bank account and 3) the customer service that goes with the entire process.
These are the 3 companies with the best buyback programs in the industry:
The next factor to take into consideration are the stockpiling options.

4) Stockpiling (Segregated vs. Non-Segregated)

There are only two types of storage: segregated and non-segregated (also called co-mingled storage). Some companies only offer non-segregated storage. Some companies like Regal Assets and Noble Gold offer segregated storage only. Non-segregated storage in itself is usually about $100 with the best companies. Segregated storage is generally about $50 higher, on average, than non-segregated storage.

Best companies that offer BOTH segregated and non-segregated storage:

Best companies that offer ONLY segregated storage:

Best companies that offer ONLY non-segregated storage:

You may have noticed that the best companies only offer non-segregated storage. This is simply because in an investor’s eyes, segregated storage is really just a fancy measure to show more ownership of your precious metals, rather than an added security measure. Because of the fact that these precious metals are so highly guarded, with the metals being assigned serial numbers, along with other added measures to make sure that your metals will always be there on demand; you can rest assured that the added security you receive from segregated storage is basically nil. In my own opinion as an investor in physical precious metals, asking for segregated storage is just like asking for numismatic coins in your IRA: they just become some extra fancy and unprofitable expenses to your portfolio.

5) Account Setup and Delivery

.One reason I chose my top 10 companies is their ability to set up accounts and deliver products lightning fast. As an example, Augusta Precious Metals has a team of expertly trained specialists on hand to help new customers. They will walk you through the entire process from beginning to end, while helping with every step.

Top gold IRA companies also have super-fast shipping. For the most part, they’ll ship precious metals orders within 7-10 days or less. Choose a company with quick set up and quick delivery so you can get started investing right away.

6) Customer Support and Salesmanship

Having top-tier customer support and knowledgeable sales teams in place is also an absolute must when choosing a new company.

Augusta Precious Metals is the clear leader in this category by far. They hired Harvard-trained economist Devlyn Steele to lead their team and educate their staff. He created a customer-focused that makes it easy to determine if investing in gold/silver is their ideal choice. Their sales teams are very helpful, knowledgeable, and they’re NEVER pushy. And not only that, Joe Montana does close the deal for you, himself. They really do go out of their way to make a lifetime partnership for you and your retirement needs. I guarantee you that, myself.

Other companies with exceptional customer service include Birch Gold and Goldco. I have dealt with all of these companies myself (Augusta, Birch Gold, Goldco), and I’ll just give you my own PERSONAL HONEST ADVICE about the minimum investment amount, too: yes, you CAN talk it down just a little bit. Not too much, though. Just be advised to be aware of which investment bracket these companies give the best offers at. And if they ask who told you that, you can say that David from Best IRA Options did. I am a customer and an affiliate for all these companies, and I do mention that in my disclosure.

Birch Gold has exceptional customer service. You can see that in their reviews and also from my own personal experience. I know for sure they only call you to make sure you’re really interested. If you’re not, it’s done – they’ll never go to the point where you’ll have to put them on an DNC list, that’s for sure. And if you do show interest, they will only make sure to call you during your best hours. It’s that simple.

It’s similar with Goldco except this: they’ll only call you ONCE. They’ll leave a detailed voice message and if you call back, you do, and if you don’t, you don’t. Once you get the voicemail, it’s TOTALLY up to you to make the next step. And when you do, you really won’t regret it because you are the one who showed interest and they will gladly pick up from there. I guess you can give them the aware for “LEAST SALESY” among all gold IRA companies.

All three companies have stellar customer support. You will not find them lacking in any way throughout your entire rollover process or cash purchase.

7) Company Management Profile – Company Longevity, Team Staff, Transparency and Compliance

In this section, we compare 3 aspects of a company:

  1. Company Longevity: how many years company has been in business.
  2. Team Staff: The reputation of the CEO and key members of the staff.
  3. Transparency and Compliance: Augusta Precious Metals is the only company in the industry that has a department solely for this purpose. All other companies are also very transparent and compliant, with exceptions of companies like Regal Assets,.

All these 7 critical factors are important to discuss and be aware of with whatever company you do decide to invest with. Knowing this, I highly suggest that you request more than one investment kit from more than one investment firm. There is always a possibility that there is a certain aspect of your retirement needs that we do not cover in this page that you may want to discuss personally with your gold IRA company representative.

Consideration 3: Can I Invest in Cryptocurrency as well? If I do decide to invest in both precious metals and cryptocurrency, will my best options be different?

Answer: YES.

As I have said before, whether or not a company offers a cryptocurrency option in their IRA does not affect their ranking as a gold IRA company in this review. However, this section is made separately for those investors who wish to have a different approach in diversifying their retirement portfolio with more alternative assets than just precious metals, the hottest item of all those assets being cryptocurrency at this moment.

As an investor in both precious metals an cryptocurrency myself, I wanted to make this section to make it convenient for fellow investors who wish to invest in both precious metals and cryptocurrency simultaneously. The choice is not as simple as you think, and it’s not as obvious as you think simply by looking at the charts above: as I’ve said, this is only a picture of how these companies perform as gold IRA companies.

And even if a company is ranked higher as a gold IRA company, it does not necessarily mean it will be so as a cryptocurrency IRA company. For example, if we look at the top companies on this list that offer cryptocurrency in this list, it will be 1) Birch Gold (and sister crypto IRA company, Bit IRA), 2) Goldco (and sister crypto IRA company, Coin IRA) , and 3) Regal Assets (which offers precious metals and crypto under the same IRA account – this is HUGE BONUS in terms of convenience when handling all your alternative assets in your retirement portfolio).

To keep it simple, if you want only one account representative handling all your alternative assets portfolio in your IRA, there is only one company you should go for:

As a cryptocurrency IRA company, in and of itself, Regal Assets is #1 in our list of cryptocurrency IRA companies.

The other options you have for cryptocurrency in your IRA are the sister companies of some other renown precious metals IRA companies, namely Birch Gold (with sister company, Bit IRA for cryptocurrency IRA investments), and Goldco (with sister company, Coin IRA, for cryptocurrency IRA investments).

The problem with the option to invest in both precious metals and cryptocurrency with these companies is that you would eventually have two different representatives from two different companies, one for your gold IRA account,  and the other for your crypto IRA account, making life a little more complicated for the average retiree. The bright side of this option is that you can choose to invest in a crypto IRA with one of these companies and choose a different company altogether for the precious metals IRA option (rather than the sister company).

These are the two other great options you have to invest in cryptocurrency for your IRA:

 

Top 10 Gold IRA Companies: The Comprehensive Overview

Ranking #1 – #3: BEST 3 Gold IRA Companies: ALL 3 Companies are Ranked #1 in AT LEAST 1 INVESTMENT BRACKET!

Ranking #4 – #6: 3 More of the Most Reputable Companies in the Gold IRA Industry

Ranking #7 – #10 – 4 More of the Most Reputable Gold IRA Companies in the Industry

Bottom Line

This is a lot of information to take in. Just remember to consider these three things before making a decision to invest with a gold IRA company from this list:

  1. How much are you going to invest? Remember, that the deals will be different at specific investment brackets.
  2. Consider the 7 Critical Factors:
    1. What do their online ratings and customer reviews look like? This itself says more about the company than anything else.
    2. Are you planning on investing in just gold and silver or also in platinum and palladium? Your best options may be different.
    3. If you plan on buying back your metals, rest assured that all the best gold IRA companies (especially the ones on this list) do have a very strong buyback program. Some have better programs than others, as indicated. Whatever the case, remember to stay in close contact with your account representative whenever you want to purchase back any portion of your metals.
    4. Do you really need segregated storage? If you do, remember that your best options will also be different.
    5. Account setup and delivery – The companies listed here do have a quick account setup process and fast delivery times. Just make sure to keep up to date with your account representative when in doubt of the status of your order.
    6. Customer support is very important. The best companies are known for having the best customer service.
    7. Company Profile: How long has the company been around for? Who is the CEO? Who are the key members of their staff? Great companies like Augusta also have an entire department set apart for transparency and compliance.
  3. Will you be investing in crypto as well? And if so, would you like all your precious metals and crypto assets under one IRA hat or do you not mind having 2 account representatives for both asset classes? Remember that generally, precious metals IRA companies and cryptocurrency IRA companies will either be working closely together (as in the case of sister companies like Coin IRA and Goldco, or Bit IRA and Birch Gold), or will allow all alternative assets to work under one hat (such as Regal Assets).

And finally, just to make it all very simple. If you go through all the information above, the below companies are the absolute best options in their investment brackets.

And finally, do not be shy to contact more than one gold IRA company for a free investment kit. It’s best to keep your options open. What is best for another customer may not be the best for you even though I do say that this company is your best choice. Only you can decide which company is right for you and best fits your needs for your own retirement portfolio.

2022 List of Best Gold IRA Companies by Investment Bracket:

[High Stakes] Investment Bracket 2: $50k - $200k

[Medium Stakes] Investment Bracket 3: $25k - $50k

[Low Stakes] Investment Bracket 4: $10k - $25k

[Micro Stakes] Investment Bracket 5: $2k - $10k